Ryland Moranz  returned to the Owl Acoustic Lounge to play a hot standing room only  show with a full band, Saturday, Oct. 15.

He had a tight band with him including crack rhythm section of bassist Kurt Ciesla and drummer  Kyle Harmon, with Skinny Dyck added sweet pedal steel licks and keyboardist Michael Ayotte.

 They allowed Moranz to switch between banjo and guitar and chat with the full house, while asking each band member to “play their favourite licks.”

 I’ve never seen anyone as blissful on stage as Ryland Moranz is, so it is always a pleasure to see and hear him.

 He played his usual set of mid-tempo, cheerful and heartfelt music including crowd favourites as well as a few songs from his upcoming new album.

Ciesla switched between upright and electric bass as Moranz gave a shout out to opening act Wendy Colby.

Drummer Kyle Harmon sing a  song called ‘Breathless’  for his wife’s birthday.

“Better Worse,” was one of several Ryland moranz songs to feature Dyck’s steel guitar licks.

 He switched back from guitar to banjo  for a couple slower songs including “Lost My Way,” which  concluded the set. Everybody got to solo,  and they were called back for an encore.

— by Richard Amery, l.A. beat Editor

Juno award winning folk musician James Keelaghan makes a long awaited return to Lethbridge  for the Lethbridge Folk Club, Oct. 30 at the Lethbridge College Cave.

 He is touring in support of his latest album “Second Hand.”

Keelaghan is touring as a duo with multi-instrumentalist David Woodhead, who play bass, fretless bass, eight string bass, guitar, lap steel guitar and guitar.

 He has known Woodhead for 25 years and has been on every CD released since 1999 and  has toured with hm a lot, unless he’s touring with Hugh McMIllin.

“ They’re both the same , just  incredible multi-instrumentalists. So to say they’re bass players takes away from how much they can do,” Keelaghan said. 

“But I couldn’t get Hugh for this one,” he said.

“ We may, if we can find a piano player in Alberta, have a piano player for the gig,” he said, adding the duo will be playing a lot of songs from the new CD.

“We’re going to hear a lot of songs from the new CD and some crowd favourites mixed in. I find on any given night in a two set night , you’re generally playing anywhere from 16  to 18 songs. There’s 10 songs on the new CD and that gives me room for six or eight from the back catalogue. I think it’s a good bet I’ll play ‘Hillcrest Mines, given where I am and things like  Cold Missouri Waters” So there’ll be a lot of the story songs and a lot of people’s favourites mixed in with what I hope will be some of people’s new favourites,” he said.

Bill Garrett produced the new album “ Second Hand,” which is a collection of songs from the past eight years.

Long time musical collaborator and friend, bassist David Woodhead joined Keelaghan in the studio. Keyboardist Bob Stagg is also in the CD as are and guitarists Bob Cohen, Dave Clarke and Joe Grass. Pharis and Jason Romero plus Kelly Prescott added vocal harmonies. The album was produced in Montréal by Bill Garrett

“It’s the first album of all original stuff in like over eight years because life was getting busy and I wasn’t really have the time or space to do some writing. So this is a collection of songs that have been written really over the past seven or eight years and  even more recently. And like everybody else I was trying to do it from home  during Covid and I reached the limit of my ability to mix and do everything,” he said.

“So my producer Bill Garrett said you know, let’s go back into a studio and do this. So we had to work around Covid restrictions in Montreal, but there’s this fantastic studio called the Treatment Room and over a period of four and five months and little bits and pieces, we managed to get in and record the whole thing in that studio with the players live, which was an amazing experience being back in a studio with live people,” he said.

 There is more piano on the new CD because Keelaghan has been having a few issues with his hand.

“I’ve been having this problem with my hands for the past 10 years or so. I’ve got a couple of nerves that are trapped in my neck and there’s nothing they can do about it. My hand is eventually just going to stop being able to play guitar. So as that was going on I just started thinking about what it is I can do if the hand goes. And piano has always been really attractive to me as an instrument. And I think piano is also really complementary to my voice as well. So this was an opportunity to see what it would sound like if we dropped more piano into the mix,” he said adding guitarist Bill Garrett found transplanted Edmontonian Bill Stagg in Montreal.

“This guy was just a monster.  Just an amazing player. Every time we asked him to do something else, he would come in with just the most unexpected things. Just a brilliant player,”  he said.

He said there is no overarching theme  to this CD. It is still historical, but more personal stories.

“Little less broad historic stories, some more personal histories, though not necessarily  histories of mine. But the song  ‘Just A Letter’ is a story  out of the life of a  friend of mine that I have wanted to tell for a while. ‘Gave it All Away’ is the same thing. Story of a person that I know. So I  just pulled the history in a bit closer and thought about  people’s personal histories and the way that the things in their lives really determine who they are, what it is they do and  how they do it ,” he said, adding there is a lot of co-writes on the CD with Catherine MacLellan, Lynn Miles, J.D. Edwards, Cara Luft and Dave Gunning. 

The Geomatic Attic has a busy week with three shows happening in a week that is full of fun things to do and see in Lethbridge.

Winnipeg duo the Small Glories play the Geomatic Attic on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $40 members, $42 non-members.

 The Sadies plus special guests Kacy And Clayton play the Geomatic Attic, Friday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m.

 The Sadies are touring in support of their latest album Colder Streams.

 Tickets are $40. There are only 29 tickets left.

 And The Geomatic Attic brings Winnipeg roots duo the Bros Landreth  to their stage on Monday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. They are supporting their latest CD “ Come Morning.” Tickets are $45.

 But first off, The Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra officially opens their concert series on Monday, Oct. 17 with special guest Eric Dyck in a musical tribute to  the visual arts from cartoons to animated pictures at the Southminster United Church.

 The Symphony will be performing  music from the Prince of Egypt, Frozen Barber of Seville and  My Neighbour Totoro. Eric Dyck will be drawing along to the selections.Tickets range from $25- $80. The Concert begins at 7 p.m.

 Also on Monday, Luke Jame Bruce hosts the open mic at Mojo’s Pub. He will also be hosting Honkers Pub”s open mic on Friday.

 And New West Theatre’s presentation of Barvinok begins the last week of their run at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre. it runs until Saturday, Oct. 22.

Americana Folk duo Quote the Raven host the Owl Acoustic Lounge’s open mic on Tuesday beginning at 9 p.m.

 The Slice has their open mic on Wednesday, which will be a busy night.

 So You Think you can Comic returns to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Wednesday, Oct. 19. Tickets are five dollars.It is one of several great comedy shows this week. 

 Impromptu brings Drunk Queer improv to Good Times on Thursday,  Oct. 20. Tickets are $15  Mike Dambra returns to  Good Times,  Friday Oct. 21  for one show at 8 p.m. and two shows Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $20.

The Memphis Mafia return to Casino Lethbridge Friday and Saturday.

Local country band Badlands  play the Owl Acoustic Lounge on Friday, Oct. 21  with the Mayhemingways multi-instrumentalist Benj Rowland. Admission is by donation.

Saturday night is all right for a little jazz music.

University of Lethbridge based community radio  station, CKXU  88.3 f.m. are going retro for this year’s Fundrive.

“ It‘s a week long fundraiser where we ask the community, students, friends and family tom support local artists and musicians and volunteers by donating their time or money to keep the station running,” summarized CKXU Operations director Courtney McDermott.

 This year’s Fundrive has a retro ’80s theme, so most DJs are programming their shows with an ’80s theme while, as usual, avoiding music you hear on mainstream radio stations. ThEy annual pledge drive began on Friday and runs until  Friday, Oct. 21.

“ It’s one of our biggest fundraisers and contributions. It’s a good sized chunk of the funds we use to keep the station running,” McDermott continued.

 Previous Fundrives have allowed CKXU to boost their signal.  Thanks to fundraising efforts, CKXU has been able to boost the signal, so you can hear the station on traditional radio on 88.3 f.m., all the way out to the U.S border, Fort Macleod and sometimes the Crowsnest Pass, Claresholm and even  near Vulcan  if you take  Hwy 23.

 The last few Fundrives went towards updating the CKXU website which will allow podcasting and  allow listeners to access their favourite shows if they can’t listen live.

The new site will be launched soon.

“It’s in the works. We went with a local company to build the new website. It will be launched very soon. We’re in the final stretch before we switch to old website over to the new website. We’re in the process of debugging it,” McDermott said, noting it isn’t just a matter of making a new website, it’s going to be a proper upgrade.

 This year’s goal is $20,000 which will be put towards reorganizing the library and making it more accessible to volunteers and digitizing it.